Welcome back to another adventure in “Restoring an Original.” This 1966 Martin D12-35 came into our shop for a neck reset. It was refreshing to see a 12-string. The customer mentioned that if we were going to remove the neck, he also wanted to have the finish damage above the neck heel cap tended to. There was about an inch-long section of finish that was not adhering to the wood. This section had a milky look to it, with some finish flaking.
Plan A (Least Abrasive Procedure) 
Once the neck was removed, I wanted to repair this damaged finish section by trying the least abrasive procedure first. For this I used straight lacquer retarder and let it seep into the crevices to burn the lacquer back into place. Next, I tried lacquer retarder with fresh lacquer and there was still little improvement. Clearly, the stain that Martin used was no longer secure in the wood and the results were not to my standards. Even though the guitar had previous work done to it, it wasn’t 100 percent straight. I really wanted to go the extra mile and do things to the best of my abilities.
Plan B
I was ready to suck it up and take the plunge: remove the eyesore section of loose finish, start from scratch, and build from the raw wood up. This would have to work, as there really was no “Plan C,” since refinishing the entire neck just wasn’t going to be an option.
For securing the neck during the beginning stages of this restoration, I used the Guitar Repair Vise attached to the Erlewine Shopstand. It is the perfect vise and stand for this job, and many others. I can sit on my stool and make an assortment of simple adjustments to position the guitar neck perfectly for the least amount of strain on my lower and upper back.
Formby’s Conditioning Furniture Refinisher worked very well to remove the unwanted flaky finish from the neck heel. What I like about Formby’s is that it easily dissolves the lacquer without stripping, a gentle but very efficient way to remove lacquer. I protected the neck heel cap and above the upper removal line with tape. I took a Q-tip, soaked one end in Formby’s, and softly applied it to the damaged lacquer. Changing Q-tips as you go along, and wiping with a lint-free cloth, is key.
Replicate
The area of the neck heel rebuild was final-prepped with 280-grit sandpaper and was ready for staining. As a result of using a non-aggressive stripper, grain filler was not reapplied to fill the wood pores.
By using Red mahogany ColorTone Concentrated Liquid Stain and Dark Walnut TransTint Liquid Stain, I was able to replicate the look that Martin used since the late 1930s. The mix of water to stains is 1:1. Always practice on a scrap piece of wood of the same species before applying for real. You can mix the stains and water in a 1-ounce mixing cup and apply the stain using a Q-tip, brush, or lint-free cloth. For this procedure I favor the Q-tip. Once the stain was looking right in the neck heel, I applied a thin layer of vinyl sealer to seal in the stain. Next, we built topcoats of nitrocellulose lacquer and spray lacquer retarder to “melt-in” the overspray.
For this month’s restoration I used the following tools and materials, available at stewmac.com or a local hardware or finishing store:
#2203 Lawrence-McFadden Nitrocellulose Lacquer Retarder
#2200 Lawrence-McFadden Nitrocellulose Spraying Lacquer
#2202 Lawrence-McFadden Nitrocellulose Lacquer Thinner
#2201 Lawrence-McFadden Vinyl Sealer
#1813 Guitar Repair Vise #5390 Erlewine ShopStand
#4199 Mixing Cups (1- ounce plastic)
#5032 Red Mahogany ColorTone Concentrated Liquid Stain
Formby’s Conditioning Furniture Refinisher Dark Walnut TransTint liquid Stain Lint-free cloth material.
Thank you for checking out this month’s “Restoring an Original.” I have enjoyed all of the emails that have been coming in over the years. I’ll do my best to continue returning each and every one with a helpful reply.
John Brown
John Brown, of Brown's Guitar Factory, is the inventor of the Fretted/Less bass. He owns and operates a full guitar manufacturing and repair/restoration facility, which is staffed by a team of talented luthiers. He is also the designer of guitar making/repair tools and accessories that are used today by instrument builders throughout the world.
brownsguitarfactory.com
info@brownsguitarfactory.com
Revv G3 Purple Channel Preamp/Overdrive/Distortion Pedal - Anniversary Edition
The Revv G3 revolutionized high gain pedals in 2018 with its tube-like response & tight, clear high gain tones. Suddenly the same boutique tones used by metal artists & producers worldwide were available to anyone in a compact pedal. Now the G3 returns with a new V2 circuit revision that raises the bar again.
If 3 Were 6
With six times the controls found on the 1 and 2 versions (if you discount the original’s on/off slider switch,) the LPB-3’s control complement offers pre-gain, boost, mid freq, bass, treble, and mid knobs, with a center detent on the latter three so you can find the midpoint easily. A mini-toggle labeled “max” selects between 20 dB and 33 dB of maximum gain, and another labeled “Q” flips the resonance of the mid EQ between high and low. Obviously, this represents a significant expansion of the LPB’s capabilities.
More than just a booster with a passive tone, the LPB-3 boasts a genuine active EQ stage plus parametric midrange section, comprising the two knobs with shaded legends, mid freq and mid level. The gain stages have also been reimagined to include a pre-gain stage before the EQ, which enables up to 20 dB of input gain. The boost stage that follows the EQ is essentially a level control with gain to allow for up to 33 dB of gain through the LPB-3 when the “max” mini toggle is set to 33dB
A slider switch accessible inside the pedal selects between buffered or true bypass for the hard-latch footswitch. An AC adapter is included, which supplies 200mA of DC at 9.6 volts to the center-negative power input, and EHX specifies that nothing supplying less than 120mA or more than 12 volts should be used. There’s no space for an internal battery.
Power-Boosted
The LPB-3 reveals boatloads of range that betters many linear boosts on the market. There’s lots of tone-shaping power here. Uncolored boost is available when you want it, and the preamp gain knob colors and fattens your signal as you crank it up—even before you tap into the massive flexibility in the EQ stage.
“The preamp gain knob colors and fattens your signal as you crank it up—even before you tap into the massive flexibility in the EQ stage.”
I found the two mid controls work best when used judiciously, and my guitars and amps preferred subtle changes pretty close to the midpoint on each. However, there are still tremendous variations in your mid boost (or scoop, for that matter) within just 15 or 20 percent range in either direction from the center detent. Pushing the boost and pre-gain too far, particularly with the 33 dB setting engaged, can lead to some harsh sounds, but they are easy to avoid and might even be desirable for some users that like to work at more creative extremes.
The Verdict
The new LPB-3 has much, much more range than its predecessors, providing flexible preamp, boost, and overdrive sounds that can be reshaped in significant ways via the powerful EQ. It gives precise tone-tuning flexibility to sticklers that like to match a guitar and amp to a song in a very precise way, but also opens up more radical paths for experimentalists. That it does all this at a $129 price is beyond reasonable.
Electro-Harmonix Lpb-3 Linear Power Booster & Eq Effect Pedal Silver And Blue
